Nikos Daley

Blind and nearly deaf, Loyola High's Nikos Daley has been able to grasp a little glory and much satisfaction as a junior varsity wrestler.

Reprinted from the Baltimore Sun newspaper, February 2, 2003.Lem Satterfield is a Sun staff reporter.

Nikos Daley
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Nikos Daley

Editor's Note: Members of the NFB in Maryland were first introduced to Nikos about ten years ago when his parents brought him to an NFB Braille Storybook Hour program.Since then, we have watched Nikos grow up into a fine young man with much promise.His tenacity and character are testaments also to the quality of his home life, and the high expectations maintained by his parents.As we go to press with this issue, the Daley family is mourning the unexpected, tragic death of Peter Daley-Nikos's father.The following article about Nikos was written and published many months before Peter's death.
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Here is the story about Nikos and his very special father and family:
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The referee motioned the McDonogh wrestler forward and instructed both boys to touch palms, leaning closer to Daley so he was sure to understand what was said.

Daley didn't recognize the other boy because he couldn't see him.He heard the words only faintly because he is almost deaf, and his hearing aids won't fit under his wrestling headgear.

Daley, sixteen, has been blind since birth.His hearing loss is believed to be linked to the same congenital condition.Despite his disabilities, the Loyola sophomore is an upbeat achiever, supported in a drive for independence by his family, friends, teachers, and teammates.
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Daley was born in Greece and spent his early years in an Athens orphanage.
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On this afternoon against Haugh, Nikos Daley was not yet skilled enough to get a win.
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Haugh, having wrestled Daley before, knew the drill.
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But this time, Haugh noticed, Daley had improved his defenses.
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"When I lost the first match, I went back, tried to figure out what went wrong," Daley said.

Only afterward did Daley discover that he had been in a rematch.He said he hoped to meet Haugh once more that day to "get my revenge."Instead, he faced sixteen-year-old Quin Pierson.

In their exhibition bout, Daley was on his back three times as he fought off Pierson, a junior, who got the pin with twenty-three seconds left in the match.

In contrast to opponents such as Haugh and Pierson, who have wrestled continuously for years, Daley most recently competed in a recreation council in eighth grade.
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Daley skipped competition as a ninth-grader to allow himself to get used to high school.Daley is the only blind student to ever attend Loyola, said Debbie Cotter, computer science chairwoman and director of educational technology, who meets with him daily to oversee his instruction.
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At Loyola, Daley earns mostly A's, mastering academics with the help of a Braille note-taking device and a system that assists his hearing.His teachers wear a type of microphone that transmits signals directly to his hearing aids.Classrooms are marked in Braille so Daley can identify each room.

"But he has learned these things by direction.And he does use a cane," Cotter said."He's come miles since he was first at Loyola.He was a timid little guy who needed someone else to get from class to class-but he needs no one now."

Cotter, who describes her role as "almost like a mother-child relationship" with Daley, is but one of several professionals who have nurtured him.
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"I don't really think I've told him," said Welsh, who instructs Daley once a week, "but he's the one who got me doing this."

Ten years ago she was his first-grade teacher at Reisterstown Elementary."That was the year they started inclusion, saying that all children, regardless of their disabilities, should be in a regular classroom," she said."I had never been around a blind person," she recalled, but she improvised, coming up with various tactile teaching methods.She also tricked him into becoming more independent.

"I would make up bogus notes for him to take to the office, and I would call down ... to let them know that Nikos was coming," Welsh said."They would watch for him, and he would just be so proud of himself that he could go down to the office and come back on his own."

Another fan is Daley's mobility instructor, who said she has taught him use of a cane and related skills "off and on" since he was 6.
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"Nikos would hold on to that chain and know if he was at the end.Nikos would use his Big Wheel, drive down, turn around and come back."Nowadays, he said, his son roller blades to the end of the block.
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That certainly applied to Nikos, a Greek toddler whose picture she spotted in an adoption magazine.But unlike their previous adoptions of four Korean children, the process of obtaining Nikos was lengthy.
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More than a decade later, Nikos still recalls his arrival."We used to have this sink with a fountain to it that was really cool," he said.
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Nikos wasn't the first to join the Daley family under difficult circumstances.
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"Nikos could have similar problems dealing with people as I did, people laughing and teasing.Since I've already gone through [it], I can give advice on what to do or say."

Visualizing for fun

Around his house, Daley is rarely without his best friend and neighbor, Marcus Gillen-Davis, seventeen, a junior at Franklin High.
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"I usually tell him [Nikos] if something is approaching or if someone's getting really close and starts shooting at him-but he takes care of the rest," said Gillen-Davis.
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Daley, his fingers moving nimbly on the PlayStation controller, explains that he visualizes the objects on the screen based on the way his friend has described them before."He tells me what's going on, and I'm used to the sounds.But this one's Final Fantasy 8; I'm really good at this!"

What else besides video games does Daley enjoy visualizing?

Extreme weather, he replied."We were almost in a hurricane at the beach once.My mom was freaking out, but I just took it all in. I've seen hailstorms and tornadoes.I've seen blizzards.The sounds of the weather are very interesting," he said, adding that he wants to become a meteorologist.

To help prepare him for the future, whatever the career, Daley and his parents belong to a club, Transition to Independence, sponsored by the National Foundation of The Blind.It conducts exercises and provides mentors for blind youngsters.

Meanwhile, in the afternoons at wrestling practice, Daley has a mentor in head coach Kenny Taylor, who is closing in on a degree in adaptive physical education.
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It's the same thing with Nikos."

"I really like Coach Taylor," Daley said."He's really glad when you win, not that uptight when you lose, and he's always confident you can do it.He encourages you."

For the more than two dozen boys on Loyola's wrestling team, Daley's decision to wrestle meant adjusting to a person who couldn't get around on his own.After one early practice, an assistant coach was supposedly the last to leave, but realized Daley was still in the room behind him.
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"Since then, everyone's checking to see, ‘Where's Nikos?' or ‘Is Nikos on the bus?' "
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At a recent practice, one of Daley's two partners took Daley's outstretched hand and sat him down against a wall out of harm's way.When Daley ran sprints, freshman Alex Keller ran beside him, shouting "left," or "right," to keep him on course.
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The momentum of two tumbling wrestlers brought them dangerously close to Nikos, one of their legs just missing his head.
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Later, Taylor walked Daley through a drill, demonstrating moves and winding up the instruction with a sort of pirouette to face his student.
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The next day, Daley was using his moves for real.Daley battled Calvert Hall's Michael Gray, fourteen, through six minutes of regulation and a one-minute extra session.

A Firm Hold - Blind and nearly deaf, Loyola High's Nikos Daley

Penn State's lone national championship team to be honored

Blind and nearly deaf, Loyola High's Nikos Daley has been able to grasp a little glory and much satisfaction as a junior varsity wrestler.